Help with dead hard drive

[Jim S]

I have a 5 year old (about) Seagate SATA drive that suddenly quit working.  It was working and on the next start up it wasn't recognized.  It is spinning initially for about 20 seconds (verified by tilting the drive to feel the gyroscopic effect).  The head seeks about 8 times before stopping.  Connections seem to be good.  There was a BSY bug that was due to a firmware issue on some Seagate drives but that doesn't seem to apply to this drive.  Model is ST2000DM001. 

There is something rattling around somewhere in the drive that I don't think is normal.  Is there an hope for this drive?  Thought there might be people on the list that have some experience trying to recover hard drives.  Would like to recover the data if practical.

[Nathan Schrenk]

If the drive makes a rattling sound when it starts up, that is a very bad sign IMO. I don't have any tips for recovering the data, but if it is valuable enough to you, there are companies that specialize in data recovery. My experience (and indirectly, my brother's experience) is that you get what you pay for in the data recovery industry and there are lots of shady players. The gold standard is DriveSavers: https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/  I don't know their current rates but expect to pay something like $1500 (!) to recover the data off of a hard drive.

Nathan

On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 3:37 PM, Jim S <jimski...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a 5 year old (about) Seagate SATA drive that suddenly quit working.  It was working and on the next start up it wasn't recognized.  It is spinning initially for about 20 seconds (verified by tilting the drive to feel the gyroscopic effect).  The head seeks about 8 times before stopping.  Connections seem to be good.  There was a BSY bug that was due to a firmware issue on some Seagate drives but that doesn't seem to apply to this drive.  Model is ST2000DM001. 

There is something rattling around somewhere in the drive that I don't think is normal.  Is there an hope for this drive?  Thought there might be people on the list that have some experience trying to recover hard drives.  Would like to recover the data if practical.

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[Keith]

I don't know about that drive but I had a friend who had a similar issue and had lost a bunch of photos that weren't backed up...  He never successfully revived the drive, but he did get a large portion of his pictures back.  In his case, the failed drive had been an upgrade to an older drive that he formatted and used for a second drive a year or so before.  He hadn't put much on that older drive and so when he ran recuva on it, most of his photos were still there and recoverable.  Something to keep in mind if that situation applies.  Good luck!

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[nfolken]

Something rattling inside? I've taken apart a number of failed drives like that and usually the case is that the read head hit the platters hard and long enough that it broke off and left the disc so scratched it would be nearly impossible to recover anything from it.There was one time ages ago that putting a dead drive in the freezer let me get a little data off it, so I always give it a try. Next step would be to find an exact duplicate and swap the logic boards to see if that revives it. Last resort would be to setup a HEPA filtered clean box and swap the platters from the bad drive to the good. I've always wanted to try that last option, but have never gotten around to building such a box.

[Frank Kallal]

I have used the Freezer Trick once or twice on Laptop HD's in the past.. here s a Walk through.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/112050/recovering-data-from-a-damaged-hard-drive-the-freezer-trick

Frank

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[Jim S]

The rattling was not when running.  all I heard running was the head seeking.  When I tip the case something inside slides around.

I think the guess of a loose head is a good one but that's just a hunch.

The drive won't do anything so I doubt recovery programs will work.  It isn't recognized by the BIOS (actually UEFI).  I think the bad section may be somehow tied to startup so it doesn't know what it is until it could read some off the platters. Not sure exactly how all that works.

If I had an identical drive I might try a head swap or platter and logic board swap.  Should have taken a few drives apart in the superbowl of destruction so I knew more about what I was getting into.

I would like to recover the files but not $1500 dollars worth. 

I will get a new drive and get the PC running again.  Then I will have to see how much I can't recreate and how important that is.

The HEPA box is an interesting idea.

[Myles Farrell]

I actually do have one of the Seagates with the bad firmware. Before I figured out that is what it was I called a few local recovery places and got quotes between $300 and $500 dollars, so there may be an option less than $1500. I can't attest to the quality of the places, maybe they are fly by night operators, but there may be cheaper options.

Not to hijack Jim's thread I am still looking for help recovering that drive. I have the correct cable, but i am in over my head on the rest of it. If you might be able to help me please email me off list.

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[Jim S]

If it's the BSY (busy) bug there are some sites that show how to update the firmware on a nonworking drive.  That's not my issue but here are some links I found while trying to figure out my issue:
https://superuser.com/questions/365999/how-do-i-recover-data-from-my-presumably-dead-hard-disk
https://web.archive.org/web/20110206010813/http://www.expreview.com/img/topic/seagate_firmware/1-16_KB11_Barracuda_Field_Update.pdf

You might try sending them an email or giving them a call.  Apparently at one point they were fixing them under warranty and the data is still there. 

Some of the places only charge you after they recover data and show you what they were able to get.  Some, like one nearby in Edwardville, charge up front.  Their first testimonial was they were happy with the service but would likely go back to a pay after recovery place.  Probably a little more but if it's unrecoverable you aren't out anything.

On Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at 6:00:01 PM UTC-5, Myles Farrell wrote:

I actually do have one of the Seagates with the bad firmware. Before I figured out that is what it was I called a few local recovery places and got quotes between $300 and $500 dollars, so there may be an option less than $1500. I can't attest to the quality of the places, maybe they are fly by night operators, but there may be cheaper options.

Not to hijack Jim's thread I am still looking for help recovering that drive. I have the correct cable, but i am in over my head on the rest of it. If you might be able to help me please email me off list.

On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 5:53 PM, Jim S <jimski...@gmail.com> wrote:

The rattling was not when running.  all I heard running was the head seeking.  When I tip the case something inside slides around.

I think the guess of a loose head is a good one but that's just a hunch.

The drive won't do anything so I doubt recovery programs will work.  It isn't recognized by the BIOS (actually UEFI).  I think the bad section may be somehow tied to startup so it doesn't know what it is until it could read some off the platters. Not sure exactly how all that works.

If I had an identical drive I might try a head swap or platter and logic board swap.  Should have taken a few drives apart in the superbowl of destruction so I knew more about what I was getting into.

I would like to recover the files but not $1500 dollars worth. 

I will get a new drive and get the PC running again.  Then I will have to see how much I can't recreate and how important that is.

The HEPA box is an interesting idea.

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[Gene J. (GeekTinker)]

Have you tried a different cable and a different port on the Motherboard? Before going to extremes, I'd advise to try the simplist options. You could also try installing it into an external case and connecting it that way.
If the rattle you heard isn't the problem, you might get lucky.

[Jim S]

Myles,

Here's another link I missed in the previous post. 
http://howto.starahead.com/?p=61
And the Seagate firmware page to look up updates
https://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-hdd/

It didn't have any for my drive but maybe that because there were no updates?

Tried to post this yesterday but the message was immediately deleted.  What's the deal with that?